Topsy-Turvey
by Clarke-Sensei
Summary: With Lena's molecules destabilizing after several battles with Talon operatives, she's forced to abandon the fight till Winston can get her gear fixed. Unfortunately, Talon wasn't going to waste their chance to remove a thorn from their side, sabotaging Lena's isolation chamber, and causing her to disappear. Instead of fading away, she finds herself in the company of a lone hunter.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey guys, I'm here with an odd one. I'm hooked on Overwatch, and I can't help but want to write about my favorite agent, the sprightly Brit, Lena Oxton, Codename: Tracer. I loathe speedy characters, but Tracer's personality and voice just grew on me. Then comes the freckles, her upbeat hairstyle, and the goggles to make me an instant fan. Not to mention, she is a ton of fun to play as. Just had this idea when brainstorming with a friend.**

 **Naturally, nothing is owned by me. I just imagined the story.**

"Lena, I suggest you sit these next few battles out. Your Chronal Accelerator seems to be destabilized, any shift can run the risk of you phasing out again." Even in the synthetic light of Winston's lab, the blue glow of Lena's anchor to the present further illuminated the room. Unfortunately, the light would flicker every once in a while, making both occupants the slightest bit nervous.

"C'mon, Winston. What am I supposed to do in the meantime? Lock myself back up in that room?" The always chipper Tracer sat uneasily, especially now that she heard Winston's diagnosis.

"For right now, that is the best option. I'll prioritize reinforcing the internal components as a temporary fix." Even though she'd be grounded for an undetermined about of time, she put on her usual smile. Wanton sadness would only make things more arduous.

"I guess a vacation is due, huh?" She hopped off the desk, and was led back to the cell she was held in whilst her condition was being examined. As much as it should bother her, she was just glad to be back at Gibraltar with the rest of her friends. Winston, Mercy, Reinhardt, and the rest of the Overwatch veterans.

"Winston, how long do you think it'll be before I can get back into the fight. I doubt they'll just sit on their haunches while I'm getting sorted out." The ape nodded, but didn't offer anything in return.

"We'll just have to see, Lena. For now, you just worry about keeping yourself in the present." She huffed, the inevitable boredom already sinking in, and she wasn't even in the cell yet.

The next week or so went by rather expediently, especially now that Winston was far more trusting with her condition. He was kind enough to provide her some forms of amusement, mainly books and board games. Which went greatly ignored as she spent her time chatting with any of her comrades that happened to stop by.

Mercy, Reinhardt, and a few others made time to visit her oddly enough. They'd stayed away when she was initially locked in the room, for good reason she imagined. Winston always gave her updates, Mercy checked how she was doing, and the ever virtuous Reinhardt recalled the recent battles for her. It wasn't a stretch to say that the old knight's tales were the closest she got to experiencing those past battles, even the embellishments conjured up fantastical images of her comrades doling out justice like Valkyries. The stories, while entertaining, only made her want to return to the battlefield even quicker. Unfortunately, the battlefield became so much closer to home than she expected.

The majority of the other members were dispatched to Egypt to route the raging maniacs known as Junkrat and Roadhog, which left Winston, Lena, and Reinhardt at Gibraltar. It was a well maintained base with state-of-the-art biometrics, and reinforcements that could stand the blast of a nuclear warhead. Unfortunately, those were of little issue for Reaper, with his odd smoke capabilities. No one even noticed his presence until he tripped a standard infrared laser just outside the hall to the isolation chamber, but Lena heard none of it.

Winston had given her a reinforced Accelerator, not a permanent fix, but she could travel about the base again. She had eagerly donned it, but was rather apprehensive to leave the room. Her faith in Winston's ingenuity hadn't waned at all, but an inkling of doubt wormed into her thoughts. If her disorder happened to bypass the device, she may not return for days, which could be life or death for her friends. So, she decided to wait.

 _I'm sure Winston will appreciate the precaution, right?_ Sadly, the ape wouldn't have the chance to praise Lena as the electronics in the chamber began to overload. Naturally, Lena was just in time to see Reaper press a button on a small cylinder attached to the panel to her room. She didn't have the chance to yell out as arcs of electricity bounded around the room in a dizzying light show. Yet, when the electronics finally burnt out, all that remained of Lena was the burnt imprints of her sneakers.

On any other day, this little quadrant of the galaxy would be perfectly uneventful. A few perfectly healthy stars burnt on with sparse planets orbiting them. Planets that had yet to find the balance necessary for promoting life. Sadly, the only living thing in this area was a single person, sitting on the hull of an orange ship.

Samus peered at the most peculiar of occurrences, her scanner doing its best to analyze what appeared to be a fissure in space. One way or another, something dragged her out of here, and she wouldn't return to Federation space till she understood why she was purposely led out here.

The console on her ship had lit up with sporadic warnings, either broadcasting jumbled coordinates or fractured code. She wouldn't lie that she entertained the thought that it was a broken message from her adoptive family, but she had a feeling they would've been far more direct with her, if that'd been the case.

Nonetheless, she continued to watch the oddity, hoping for something to occur. She didn't necessarily need to wait too long as her scanner suddenly began to blare a warning.

" _Dimensinal shift occurring, retreat to minimum safe distance."_ Without further ado, she dropped back into her ship, but she didn't pull back. If whatever was on the other side of this had plans that were less than friendly, she'd need to be as close as possible to deal with it.

Wordlessly, she pulled up her weapon systems, bringing her ship to maximum offensive capabilities. Her ship's onboard systems warning of a drastically increasing spike in power, and some of her more sensitive sensors began to pick up interference. Nigh moments later, all the readouts flatlined.

"Now that's interesting." She double checked all the scanners, but only picked up a single thing on her proximity scanner. A person-sixed object, but she didn't need the monitor to tell her what it was. She could spot a person floating in space, wriggling wildly. She had already begun hurtling towards the person, knowing that every moment was crucial.

Without a hiccup, she grabbed a backup EVA suit, and ejected herself out of the ship, directly at the panicked person. With an extra burst from small in-built thrusters, she snapped the person into her arms, and placed the helmet on. It sealed against the person's neck, significantly decreased the depressurization. The suit was more of a hassle, even as the person decreased her wriggling, but she still got it on.

"Hey, calm down. You'll be fine now." The person, who Samus finally had a chance to look at, was a woman in her mid-20s. She had a smattering of freckles along her upper cheeks, and her eyes were rather bloodshot. Her goggles must've been a decent enough pressure seal to have prevented her eyes from bursting.

"Now. Tell me your name." The girl's frantic looking about slowly subsided, especially now that she was able to breath.

"Lena… Lena Oxton." Samus had to laugh to herself internally, just because of the girl's accent. It was one she had mainly heard in older videos she watched.

"Nice to meet you, Lena. I'm Samus." The younger woman offered a small smile, looking increasingly haggard as the rush of adrenaline petered out. Now, the girl looked around, encroaching exhaustion evident on her face.

"Where am I? When am I?" Samus shrugged, stalling till her ship could pull in close enough to drag them in. She could understand the "where" question, but the "when" bothered her. The girl almost made it sound routine, but that wasn't a concern at the moment. That lied with the possible problems that would arise from Lena's decompression.

"Currently, we are drifting several thousand lightyears out of the Tallon system, orbiting an uncatalogued solar system." As she spoke, her ship drifted to them, and Samus quickly hauled both of them in.

The next few minutes passed quickly as Samus ran the necessary medical scans on her new friend, the only issues were burst blood vessels in and around her eyes. Nothing her medical suite couldn't fix up. Which she allowed it to do, not before it administered a sedative to render the girl unconscious. As much as she'd have liked to let the girl remain conscious, it was best for her to rest up.

While Samus let the girl rest, Samus ran a full suite of scans on the girl. Lena had been dragged through a tear in the universe, and she wanted to know why. Which is when the full scope of what was happening occurred to her.

Her "patient" was suffering from what some called "chronal disassociation". It was an issue that tended to arise in failed teleportation subjects, but it had only been seen in inanimate objects. Her molecules constantly shifted through the time stream, and the device attached to her acted as an anchor to prevent her from phasing out for an untold amount of time.

Other than that, she was a perfectly healthy adult human. No doubt Earth-born, and that's where the next issue made itself known. She shuffled it away for later, now that the sedative began to wear off. This girl was an oddity, and now, one of the many in the Hunter's life.

 **Well, rather short for this one, there will be more though. Just noticed how prevalent Tracer is in all the other crossovers, hope you guys think this one is at least a bit different compared to those. Also, this won't be a romance story, if any feel inclined to ask. Thought about doing that, but I don't feel up to it.**

 **See ya next time.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Well, what do you know, another chapter. v I've been killing myself trying to write these last few months, and all it has made me do is regret having a job. But I try to persevere through it. Little side note for those who care, this series follows along where the Prime games were still canon. I personally care very little for what they did with the canon with Other M.**

 **Also, there is quite a bit of technical jargon that I felt compelled to write…**

 **As with all stories, I am only writing this for fun. All characters and settings are property of their respective companies. On to the story.**

"So wait, where am I again?" Even though she had known this would happen, it didn't help that she had to explain where Lena had appeared again. Samus put up with it, especially considering what the girl had gone through. It also slightly bothered her that Lena spoke of time travel as a simple fact of life for her. Though she knew something far worse might just be over the horizon.

It was only a matter of time before Lena began to look for a way back, and Samus would have no answer for her. Their only hope for that would lie with the Chozo, and she knew better than anyone what waiting for them is like.

"By the way, is there any chance your fancy starship can reopen that fissure I came out of, and send me back? I really have to get back to my friends, and all…" If she had a credit for every time she hit the nail on the head, she could afford a frigate by now. It didn't help that she did feel a bit sorry for the girl, but dancing around the issue wasn't going to solve anything.

"Well, by your silence, I'll take that as a no." Samus nodded, pulling up a few of her scans from the event.

"Besides the sheer level of energy needed to replicate it, I do not have the means or the materials to send you back. There would also be the matter of sending you back to the right time and place, and not just sending you barreling into another timeline." She only watched as that giddy mask of Lena's faltered, now revealing exactly what the hunter expected.

Lena looked at the ground, every sliver of optimism and enthusiasm drained from her in the moment it took for Samus's words to register. She didn't even wail out in her sadness, and only let the small patter of tears ring out as they began to flow.

"But there is a chance, Lena. The people who raised me have the means to do something quite like what you just experienced. Though they have been gone for some time now." The girl would need a sliver of hope, that much was sure. Yet, this also presented an opportunity for Samus. This just might be the push she needed to actively seek out lost caches of her adoptive family's legacy.

"How long do you think it'll take, Sam?" She had never seriously taken into account how much time it would take for her to search, but if she compiled data from Tallon IV, Zebes, and both databases of the Federation and Space Pirates, she imagined they could get a fairly reasonable trail to follow. They would mainly need to rediscover the method by which the Chozo left. It would at least give them a way to bring them back, or a way to follow them.

"A few years at most. That's considering a long, drawn out conflict with Space Pirates, and a lot of bureaucratic red tape to trudge through from the Federation. The largest issue is bringing the Chozo back, which is why we need to get information from those factions." Lena nodded, wiping away the tears to let her grin return. It was reassuring that the girl's fight had returned to her.

"Space Pirates are bad, eh?" Samus grinned slightly in return.

"The worst." There would need to be some precautions ironed out before they could start that escapade. Lena would be horridly equipped to face off against the most basic of grunts. It also didn't take a genius to tell what type of combat style that Lena used, just based on the streamlined outfit.

She didn't have the patience, nor the materials to manufacture and train Lena in the ways to use a power suit. It would have to be a suit that would be compatible with Lena's Chronal Accelerator, as well as compatible with standard shielding systems and a weapon system with some variability.

It only took Samus several days to gather the few items her ship's systems couldn't manufacture, and it took less than a few hours for a perfectly functional system to be made. The suit was modeled on a modified scout frame from the Federation that had most of its structure replaced with Jovian steel, making it stronger without compromising the suit's light build. She kept the majority of the original plating due to its lighter weight. This also aided with the suit's augmenting capabilities, increasing the speed at which the suit could operate. The only major modification that remained was the gear that was attached to Lena already.

The Accelerator was simple overall, but well applied by whoever designed the item. The Accelerator needed a large material overhaul, even the most basic of weaponry could tear through the casing like plasma through a sheet of paper. She gave it a shiny new coat of more Jovian steel, as well as replacing the internals with more stable materials. From what the scans were showing, the updates would give Lena a larger window for some of the in-built controls. It was then simple work to make it integrate with the suit, and then it gave them the chance to design a weapon system to fit. Naturally, Lena went with her tried-and-true pistols.

The pistols were manufactured from the spare Federation frame metal, and contained a miniaturized battery based off her own reserve tanks. This would provide them with the capability to run nigh-indefinitely, and allow them to have the punch to break through the defenses of the Pirates. Unfortunately, they didn't quite have the capabilities to feature multiple types of projectiles, but they would do the trick if Lena's abilities still worked with the modified gear.

The last piece of gear was a modified Power bomb, which was linked to her Accelerator to provide reusable ordinance. Everything short of uncompromised Denzium and a short list of other materials would be annihilated. With both of their approval, they decided that a field test was next up on the list.

Several minutes and solar systems later, yielded the Tallon system. The scene of their first meeting, but also the home system to Tallon-IV. Samus had cleared the planet of both Pirate and Phazon several years prior, but the Pirates had recently sent out a small scouting party to check for viable test subjects. They'd be sufficient cannon fodder for a field test.

Strangely enough, the snow still fell just as peacefully as they had all those years prior in Phendrana. Even the native fauna seemed awfully relaxed in comparison. Samus reasoned it to the disappearance of the Phazon, just for simplicity's sake. She just wanted to enjoy the peace that she had guaranteed. Unfortunately, her companion decided to break the silence.

"Oy, Sam. What should I be lookin' for? I know they are pirates an' all, but I doubt they'll have eye patches and peg legs if I need this gear." Wordlessly, she transferred a few of her files. There was a slight hope that the girl would spend some time analyzing, but they were just as swiftly dashed.

"Is this a bloody dragon? This Ridley thing?" If she had to take a guess, Lena used her abilities to read through the entire thing. Simply because the file on Ridley was placed near the end, along with the rest of the fallen hierarchy.

"Not a dragon in the classical sense. Probably would've stayed dead the first time if it had been." They had wandered past some of the frozen falls, some of which seemed to have small trickles of liquid petering off. Whether it was the inevitable climate change or the disappearance of the Leviathan, she didn't know. Frankly, she didn't care. She had scoured the Chozodian ruins, and only walked away with a few upgrades and more disappointment than she cared for.

"They've resettled their research facility, no doubt scouring for any traces of Phazon that may remain." Both of them spent the next few minutes in silence, scouring the valley for any lookouts. Even when they found the entrance, there was a severe lack in sentries. Lena apparently didn't mind, but the girl also hadn't been fighting her own personal war against them for most of her life.

It wasn't till they entered the old containment cells that they began to notice why there was a severe lack of combatants.

Sprawled all around the room were the desiccated corpses of horribly disfigured Pirates. She didn't even need to scan them to see what had transpired. They were all in various levels of Phazon decay, which they had been holding off with their usual mess of highly dangerous modifications. It was a hysterical situation, simply for the fact that they decided to come to this planet.

All the recorded Leviathans, along with any of the spare deposits that either Federation or Pirate forces, disappeared in the span of a few hours. Tallon had been no different, even her scans resulted in no remaining traces. Why they returned to this outpost eluded her.

"Well, that was underwhelming." Lena trotted on by, kicking one of the now brittle corpses. The Huntress had to agree. Not only was the chance to see her handiwork in action foiled, but the Pirates hadn't even given them the courtesy of staying alive long enough to die in battle.

"Keep looking around. Either they were too desperate to think of something better, or they knew about something that I didn't." The latter was highly unlikely, but she never doubted some trick. She did have options though.

"Lena, hold tight. I need some extra equipment from my ship." Even though she highly doubted that they'd be needed, the Dark and Echo visors from Aether might prove useful.

By the time she made it outside, her ship was hovering over the platform she'd marked on her map. She hopped on top of it, and disappeared into the cabin. Her storage compartment already presented the upgrades, so she swiped them up, and hopped out of her ship just as quickly as she had arrived.

Lena, on the other hand, had started exploring the area on her own. There wasn't much she could do in comparison to Samus, but she wasn't the type to stay still for too long.

 _Well, let's see._ Even though she'd already taken a cautionary look (and kick) at them, she decided to take a better look at the Pirate corpses.

Compared to all of the ones she saw in the files, these ones were certainly the ugliest. Even though they were bug-like to begin with, a few of them took the bizarre traits a bit further. One had a large hump on its side, which had been shoved full of mechanical parts. Tubing and pipes exited from the growth, leading into the arm where a bio-mechanical cannon had been implanted. It was certainly something Angela would like to examine.

"Wouldn't that be interesting, Doc? Aliens and such…" Her friends would be absolutely thrilled to see such sights, especially Winston and Angela. She had to wonder how her friends were getting along without her, and couldn't shake the feeling that they were still in trouble. Reyes had been the one to cause her to disappear anyways.

 _Though I doubt that creep would get the drop on the old man. Plus, the sensors would've started going off as soon as the containment room destabilized._ It just wasn't in the cards for her friends to fall, and would bet her Accelerator that they repelled them.

 _If anything, Winston's probably losing his mind on trying to track me down, while the others keep Talon at bay._ A small grin stole its way onto her face as she was brought back into the present. She had yet to fully explore the room, though Samus probably left her here to waste time. Plus, there was still practical testing necessary for her enhanced equipment.

 _Here goes nothing._ With practiced ease, she began to run while activating the Blink routine. Instantly, she felt the difference. The mere distortion of time had slowed to a crawl, and her reserve timer indicated up to 3 minutes of temporal movement. Winston's work had only yielded a maximum of 15 seconds, which she'd separated into 5 short bursts.

Clearing the room was a quick matter with so much wiggle room, and just as Samus's scans indicated, there was nothing to show for it.

"You haven't destroyed anything, have you?" Lena spun around lazily, easily spotting the orange-clad huntress.

"Not for lack of tryin', love. Weren't you getting some more gear? Don't see anything new on you." The response she was given was a simple tap on Samus's helmet, where the visor color suddenly changed from its usual green to a vivid orange.

"This can't be." Samus charged past her, completely ignoring the questions that Lena had begun to ask. All she could do was follow as the huntress trudged past to one of the adjacent walls, but stopped just about two feet away from it.

"Here." A message popped up on her HUD, indicating that she just gained the "Dark Visor".

"Look at the wall once you have that switched over. I'll get to work getting things sorted out." What Samus said completely bypassed Lena, too absorbed in looking around now that her world suddenly became black and white. All except for one major piece of equipment that she hadn't seen before.

Before she had the chance to ask, the structure erupted into life.

"You can go back to the normal visor. It will be visible to the naked eye." The silhouette gained definition, becoming a brown archway with red orbs scattered across it. What was most unnerving about it was at its center. A blob of darkness surrounded by an aura of purple haze, electricity arcing directly from the haze to the archway.

"What is it?" Both of them stood at the precipice of the void, watching as the portal continued to fluctuate.

"Something that shouldn't be."

 **Well, this is sorta longer then the last one. And some more story stuff, of course. I imagine most of you have questions, especially those who have played Echoes. I'll address them in the next chapter.**


End file.
